i first heard Rosie Thomas in a collection of songs featured on every single Grey’s Anatomy episode of the first two seasons that some crazy fan put together (a pretty good collection, btw). my sister sent me this song a few weeks ago, and until now, i didn’t even realize the other singer was Sufjan Stevens.
Rosie Thomas and Sufjan Stevens - Say Hello
if you click here, it looks like you can even download the mp3, though it has a couple second odeo ad with it.
we’re so used to ordering whatever tests we want for patients, though we do occasionally consider cost. for one of my patients we had a bit of a discussion whether this test was indicated, considering that there was a good chance we would not make any changes to his management. the attending, however, wanted the test, and so it was ordered along with another scan. it was a bit surprising to learn the next day that he would be unable to undergo these tests, not because of time or cost or efficacy, but simply because of a national shortage of technetium-99.
i guess the upside is that this forces us to really evaluate the necessity/utility of the tests we order.
The Saturday before Halloween, I dragged my friends to a corn maze, which turned out to be kinda lame and not at all like Knott’s Scary Farm. We salvaged the night by going bowling, which brought out some fun competition (med students competitive? what?).
Sunday we had a pumpkin carving party.
Josh’s creation this year, which earned some compliments from trick-or-treaters:
I even decorated the house with spider webs.
And then I toasted 2 1/2 pumpkins’ worth of seeds, using this recipe with some modifications (no garlic salt so I just used all seasoned salt; no worcestershire sauce; and doubled the seasoning ingredients). They turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Tip: spread out your pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet or two and let them dry out overnight before toasting.
my brother sent me this video the other day. [as his big sister, i'd like to take some credit for helping him develop good taste in music 
].
to me, it sounds jack johnson-ish with violin. when i listen to it, i invariably close my eyes. not sure if it’s from the beauty of the music or my subconscious following the lyrics’ directions…
Sing To You
It’s almost late, I hate to tell you that
it’s my time to go
I’ve stayed as long as mama let me, she’s
sad I’ve found a new place to call my
Home is where you find your dreams,
but you’re staring at the sun
So close your eyes, forget I’m leaving,
and let me lay beside you while IChorus:
Sing to you
It won’t be long before I’m with you
And not without another song to
Sing to you
So close your eyes forget I’m leaving,
let me lay beside you while IFind the words to paint the pictures of
where we’re gonna be…
A thousand days anticipation will
keep us on our toes until my knee doth hit the ground will shake when I ask you for your hand
I’ll stand behind you,
don’t be unkind, you know I’ll
keep my promise to you when IChorus
Bridge
Violin soloI’ll hold you to my heart
is beating with every breath you take
A flower blooms and it fills the room
with the morning glory erasing all
The mistakes I made before we made it
and left it all behind
I’ll bow my head, kiss you gently
I know you understand the words ISing to you
It was not long, and now I’m with you
And not without the same old song to
Sing to you
So close your eyes forget I’m leaving,
let me lay beside you while I
Sing to you© 2007 Alain de Courtenay, LLC
MSNBC: Men sleep better beside mate; women worse
josh isn’t a snorer, but still. i’ll wake up multiple times in the night when he’s sleeping over. partly it’s his jerky arm syndrome but other times there’s nothing specific that wakes me up. i guess i just don’t like sharing my bed.
Ann Coulter, in a New York Observer interview, being her usual offensive self:
If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.
It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and ‘We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care — and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?’
and yet, her book is #5 on Amazon as of this writing. i’m not sure what’s more frightening – that she spouts such irrationality and prejudice to sell books, or that people out there actually agree with her.
i love the cute love stories, yes i do.
this blog is a bit like a daily dose of chicken soup for the soul. not sure if it would actually be something found in a “chicken soup” book since i never read those, but the blog’s emotion-filled posts remind me why i so appreciate music and literature and art.
Josh and I saw Stardust a couple weeks ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed this self-aware and yet completely cheesy fairy tale. Probably even more so as a wonderful escape from my call-every-fourth-night, one-day-off-a-week NICU schedule. Until a friend recommended it, I’d heard nothing about this latest entry into the fantasy genre made popular again by the Harry Potter and LOTR movies.
Stardust is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, better known for his dark Sandman comics. I have not read of any Gaiman myself, having only heard of him from my geek friends (not to say that I am any less of a geek). After my friend recommended it, and I figured out that it was not in any way related to Las Vegas (is that hotel still around?), I went to my trusty movie guide – the all-knowing “Rotten Tomatoes“, which I use to screen out movies that will waste my precious free time. A fairy tale and a fresh rating? Sure, why not.
With its playfully self-aware humor, Stardust has drawn many comparisons (some unfavorable) to The Princess Bride. I’m not one of those who has adoringly memorized Princess Bride, and admittedly have only a vague memory of the movie (I was only 6 when it came out!), so I can’t make those comparisons. All I know is that I enjoyed Stardust’s well-paced and charming story of princes, witches, pirates, and above all, love. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Charlie Cox is easy on the eyes, though it’s Robert De Niro who steals the scenes.
Per the LA Times review, ”with its heart worn proudly on its sleeve, it’s one of the best date movies of the year, a compatibility litmus test for starry-eyed romantics.” So if you’re looking for a fun movie with a story that’s captivating but simple enough to be kind to your brain, I highly recommend you catch Stardust before it’s out of the theaters. I’m already looking forward to having time to read the book.
i just had to add that today was my very last day, and we had yet another baby with end of life issues. what a way to end a rotation huh?
living in the hospital as i have for the past month, it has been disconcerting to suddenly find that the sun sets before 8 pm and that i need a sweater when heading out for the hospital early in the morning. and tonight, i found storm clouds hovering close by and a weather forecast of rain the next few days. what happened to summer? wasn’t it 100+ degrees a little over a week ago? how dare the seasons change, or time move on.
for me, time has stood still as my days have become the same blur of running downstairs for deliveries and managing the daily minutiae of nutrition and respiratory needs of sick babies and adjusting to wildly opposite attending styles each week and taking call every 4th night. but all of a sudden, i was at the end of my rotation with one last call night.
on my last NICU call, i found myself, for the first time, watching babies die. i watched my attending wrestle with the bad news that had to be broken and the nagging question of whether anything could have been done differently. i watched the nurses dress and wrap one of the newborns for pictures that would now be post-mortem. i watched an 8 yr old sister and 2 yr old brother of the other baby run around in the waiting room as their parents cried at their newborn brother’s bedside, a bedside crowded with machines and monitors and drips. i watched the parents attempt to wipe their tears and put on a normal face as they picked up their kids and headed to the hotel for the night.
and then i came home this afternoon, opened my email, and discovered that one of our gyn onc patients had passed away suddenly. she’d had a complicated post-operative course, but had been on the road to recovery when i left the service. and every morning when we rounded at her bedside, her husband would update us on her latest progress and anxiously remind us to request this consult or make sure that issue was being carefully managed. he was her best advocate – her personal intern or medical student, if you will – and was overjoyed when she was deemed well enough to be transferred to rehab. they had gone through so much, and i could only imagine his devastation. knowing her husband, he was at her bedside every day until the sudden end, and this comforts me somewhat.
and then later tonight i found myself on the hospital’s employee homepage, about to click on the “Clinical Resources” link so i could research my assigned topic for tomorrow’s rounds, when a headline under “Today’s News” caught my eye. one of the attendings with whom i had worked just one month ago had died of a heart attack three days ago.
i hope it doesn’t start pouring tomorrow.
